Baseball: Upton's Bill Summers was one baseball's best umpires

Sunday

Sep 15, 2013 at 6:00 AM

By Bill Ballou TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

When Cecelia Summers and her family went to the baseball game, their tickets were among the best in Fenway Park — a box seat near the field, close enough to the action to hear the hiss of a curveball as it spun through the air on the way to home plate.

But they had to sit there quietly. They didn't have to pay for their seats, but there was a price. The kids couldn't cheer, and one day a fan noticed their reticence and asked, "So, who are you cheering for?"

"We're cheering for the umpire," they responded.

Beginning with J. Lee Richmond's perfect game in Worcester in 1880 and continuing through to Chris Colabello's remarkable journey from the Can-Am League to the American League, the fabric of baseball has always included colorful threads from Central Mass.

One of the most colorful was Cecelia Summers' dad, Bill Summers of Upton, one of the best umpires ever to wear blue.

It's much easier to make the major leagues as a player than as an umpire. While Central Mass. has had dozens of big league players, only a few have made it as umpires. The father of modern umpiring, Honest Jo hn Gaffney, was from Worcester and in 1888 made more money than most players — $2,500 plus expenses.

Oxford's Steve Palermo was often ranked as the best ump in the American League during a career that began in 1977 and was cut short in 1991 by a robber's bullet. Kevin O'Connor, also of Oxford, made it as high as Triple A and today works for Major League Baseball as an umpire observer.

Summers, who died in 1966 at age 70, was one of those larger-than-life figures from the Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Bob Feller era of baseball. Although some of his artifacts are there, Summers is not in the Hall of Fame.

He worked seven All-Star Games, all behind the plate. He worked eight World Series, including 47 games, still fourth all-time.

Of the three men involved in one of the most memorable and hotly debated plays in baseball history — Summers, Yogi Berra and Jackie Robinson — Summers is the only one not in Cooperstown. Summers was the man who called Robinson safe on his steal of home in Game 1 of the 1955 World Series.

It is probably Robinson's signature moment as a player and Summers' signature moment as an umpire. Summers believed to his dying day he was right. Berra still believes the umpire was wrong.

A few years ago, Summers' grandson, Ricky, was at Yankee Stadium and Berra was doing an autograph session, so Ricky Summers waited in line for two hours to meet the Hall of Fame catcher. When Berra found out whom he was signing for, he became agitated and said, "Your grandfather was wrong! Robinson was out at home. (Summers) had no angle to be able to make that call."

There is film of the play and when Bill Summers was alive, his daughter said, he'd look at the replay and say, "See that? I was right. (Robinson) was safe after all.'"

The video is easily available online. A look at it is inconclusive — the play was that close. What is interesting is Summers' reaction. As Berra jumps up and down and Casey Stengel rushes out to argue, Summers calmly turns his back and walks away. He doesn't confront either Berra or Stengel, engage in the argument, or show emotion of any kind.

Nobody gets ejected. The World Series goes on. A legend is born.

Summers lived in Upton from 1928 until his death. His career began accidentally, when he was at a high school game in Woonsocket, R.I., and the scheduled ump did not show up.

At the time, Summers was a prize fighter, a lightweight who went by the name Marty Winters. Someone suggested that nobody would give Summers a hard time, so he was asked to do the game.

When it was over, he got $3. Figuring that being paid to take verbal abuse would lead to a longer and healthier life than having his nose broken on a weekly basis, Summers became an umpire.

He turned pro in the Double-A Eastern League in 1921 — for $375 a month — which is where he had his first run-ins with Stengel, whose managerial debut was in Worcester in 1925.

The first major league game he umpired, a 4-2 victory by the White Sox over the St. Louis Browns on April 12, 1933, in St. Louis, was also the first one he ever saw. Summers' final game also involved the White Sox. They lost Game 6 of the 1959 World Series to the Dodgers, 9-3, and — like in his first game — Summers worked third base.

Summers' salary as a rookie ump in '33 was $3,500.

"What he was paid," Cecelia Summers said, "was much, much less than what umpires make today. One of the World Series he did, he was paid $1,500 for the whole World Series."

Umpires did not get paid for the All-Star Game; they received gifts. When he worked the Red Sox-Yankees exhibition game in Douglas in 1946, Win Schuster gave him a washer and dryer.

"But there were eight children in our family, and seven of us went to college," Cecelia said. "The only one who didn't — that's because he didn't want to go. We were able to have many things we would not have had if he'd been a mill hand."

During his major league career and after it, Summers was what we would call today an ambassador for the game. He was a popular dinner guest and speaker, and even a journalist. After he retired, Summers authored an article for Look magazine headlined, "Baseball Boors I Have Known."

Summers worked during a time when television first became a major part of the game and had no problem with it, according to his daughter.

"I remember him saying, 'The cameras can get as close as they want, but I hope they don't have audio.'?"

Summers was the plate umpire the night Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak ended, and he umpired the 1946 All-Star Game at Fenway Park when Ted Williams hit Rip Sewell's eephus pitch for a home run. Summers thought DiMaggio was the best all-around player he ever saw and Williams the best hitter.

None of Summers' eight children became umpires. His son Bill was a football referee and son George is a member of the New England Auto Racers Hall of Fame, but the great old umpire never nudged any of his offspring into the business.

In 4,121 games, Summers had only 66 ejections. He had a thick skin, knew when to walk away and understood that the game was about the players, not the umpires. It was a blueprint for a long, successful career — perhaps even a Hall of Fame career, but that is for higher powers to decide. In any case, he was one of the most colorful stitches in the grand quilt that is baseball in Central Mass.

Baseball Jeopardy

Answers:

1. Red Sox manager John Farrell pitched the last complete game of his career in this ballpark.

2. The last Red Sox batter to ground into a triple play.

3. He has given up 323 career home runs, the most of any active major league pitcher.

Questions below.

Catching up with…

Pitcher David Cone is an analyst on the Yankees YES Network. ... Larry Andersen of Jeff Bagwell trade infamy is a color man on the Phillies' radio broadcasts. ... Reliever Scott Cassidy is head baseball coach at LeMoyne College in Syracuse. ... Short-timer Andy Dominique coaches women's softball at his alma mater, Nevada-Reno. ... Lefty Pete Schourek, who had two stints with Boston, teaches at U.S. Baseball Clinics in Washington, D.C. ... Rule V draft pick Adam Stern is a part-time scout for the Red Sox.

Jeopardy questions

1. What is Fenway Park? Of course — why else broach the topic? Farrell was the losing pitcher for the Indians on June 6, 1990, in a 4-3 Boston victory.

Roger Clemens got the win, Jeff Reardon the save. The Sox manager was Joe Morgan, who got the job when the Indians' manager, John McNamara, was fired.

2. Who is Tim Naehring? The Boston infielder bounced into the standard 5-4-3 triple play in the bottom of the first on June 6, 1996 at Fenway Park.

Robin Ventura started the triple play for the White Sox; the Red Sox won, 7-4, anyway.

3. Who is Mark Buehrle? The Blue Jays' efficient lefty is 17 gopher balls ahead of two former Red Sox pitchers, Bronson Arroyo and Bartolo Colon.